1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video game, and more particularly to a video game which can let a player visually know the effective ranges of various tools (items) for use in a game.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the initial stage of the popularization of video game machines, most video games were 2-Dimensional (2D) games in which the images of objects like game characters and buildings were displayed two-dimensionally. In recent years, however, most video games have become 3-Dimensional (3D) games in which the images of the objects are displayed three-dimensionally, due to improvements in the performances of image processors.
Of 3D games, role-playing games (RPGs) are especially popular because a player can experience the game story, while acting as if he were the player character (the main character).
In general, an element of character development has been introduced in RPGs. For example, an RPG is designed so that the player gains a predetermined experience level as a result of winning fights with enemy characters. To facilitate player character development, many fighting scenes are presented during the progress of the game in RPGs.
Generally speaking, in a fight in an RPG, the player character and an enemy character (non-player character) alternately attack each other, and the first character to cause the other's Hit Points (HP; life force) to be zero wins. There are two types of attacks: one is an attack by the player character itself and the other is an attack using items (which affect an opponent) such as weapons and magic.
In conventional video games, the effects of the items such as weapons and magic vary according to their kinds. However, little consideration is given to their effective ranges (such as the shooting ranges). Due to this, when attacking the enemy character using an arrow, for example, if the arrow flies toward the enemy character, then the arrow hits the enemy character in most cases, regardless of the distance between the characters.
Making the effects of the items different from each other depending on the distance between the attacking character and the opponent character has also been brought into practice. In conventional video games, however, since a player is not notified of the effective ranges of the items, he is not able to correctly judge whether an item which he intends to use will be effective to do damage to the enemy.